The first 4 crews were probably supervisors who know nothing technical, probably just stalling until the guys who knew what they were doing could get there.
We used to live in an area where there were only 58 homes on our particular power grid, so when the power went out, it was low priority, and we had to wait until they had some free time to fix it. So I know how frustrating it can be. But at least the restaurants still had power so we could go out to eat. Of course, you have to throw away everything in the refrigerator, which for me is a huge investment because I tend to keep the freezer packed.
How did you deal with food? Could you cook? Even if you have a gas stove, most of them have electric ignitions, so they won't work.
Thanks for the welcome.

Unfortunately the first 2 days most of my little town was out but it was really no big deal to head to the next town over at the riverside bar. Our fridge lasted about 12 hours before it started gaining degrees to about 45 F and then we started getting ice to keep it maintained. That went on for about 2 days and we said screw it and chucked everything after that. Luckily the hurricane happened on a weekend so I figured to hold off on food shopping until we saw the outcome.

When I first bought the home it had an electric hot water heater and I replaced that with a gas model as we have natural gas here. Hot showers make no electricity a bit more bearable  . Also LED headlights and flashlights make getting around almost enjoyable and I've always been a big fan of candles. Grew up camping so we made the best of it.

We have a charcoal grill and a gas grill so it's always a blast cooking things you don't normally do on a grill....like pizza 

Will be definitely looking into a nice sized generator with a manual transfer switch to power everything before winter this year. Need to do my homework on one of these for sure-

And yes, "ya-nvr-No, matches are always with me in times like these. Or at least those long stem lighters!

Dave

I still have matches, but they burn down to my fingers before I get anything lit, and lighters are so much fun. I love the long stem lighters for the barbecue.
You don't want to have this happen in winter without that backup generators.
Interesting that you held off on shopping; my daughter in New York said the stores were packed on Friday. Usually impending disaster makes everyone think they have to stock up. They didn't lose power but they had some anxious moments wondering if the flood waters would reach them.

Yep, it gets like that around here in winter. It's amazing when we get a couple of inches of snow and all the bread and milk disappears 

Dave

Dave you need to get yourself a small GAS fridge and freezer.  Down here I have seen friends spend 3 times the value of the contents just to keep a fridge/freezer cold running a genset AFTER a hurricane blows through.  A few years back we had 3 blow through in just a few months.

(;-) TP

I've often wondered about gas fridges and freezers, but don't they need a compressor/pump?

Actually this is interesting:

http://home.howstuffworks.com/refrigerator5.htm

Dave

EDIT: but it looks like an RV fridge?

Dave,

Boats I have had in the past have had electric/gas fridges, smaller than the domestic variety but they have always run beautifully (electric when the engines are running and gas or mains electricity when in port. I suspect that the RV fridges are pretty much the same.

Tweakie.

Save that old grasscutter motor and put a belt to a used car alternator along with a good battery and inverter.  
Poors mans generator!   You may want also consider having the inverter in the car / truck with wires to use both ways. That's what a friend did, provides option on use and works well.

Yep, those solar lights for the lawn provide lighting for numerous rooms on loss of power. Get them on sale as i found them for $2 a piece and included the nicad batteries.

We lucked out and had no power failure.

I mentioned to the better half not to worry about loosing power since we could just bond and live on love over the weekend.
After some thought, she said I would probably be darn hungry after three days. So made sure I had an extra filled gas bottle for the grill.  

RICH

Your lucky, a woman of few words, LOL